Okay, I have a little rant, and because I don’t like to leave negative comments on people’s works, I am putting it here. So ao3 has an amazing filtering system, it is truly beautiful and remarkable, but some people try to work around it and that bothers me. There are many things I could say about this, but the one I want to talk about right now, is the complete works filter, and how people circumvent it by saying “It’s a series”. No, it’s not, if it is under 5000 words, and just abruptly ends, with zero resolution, that is a chapter, not a complete work, and you mislead me. You abuse that label, you got me hooked and this is fanfiction, so I have no guarantee that you will ever finish it. When you read an incomplete work, you know that going in, you make that choice and accept that it may never be finished. But when someone games the system, and posts an incomplete work, but labels it complete, they disrespect me and the entire, beautiful tagging/filtering system ao3 has. Just be honest, it’s a wip, 1359 words with zero plot resolution does not a complete story make. Please and thank you, thanks for listening to my Ted Talk.
Please share if this annoys you too. I’m posting this here because I refuse to shame people directly on their works. As a fellow fanfiction writer, negative comments, no matter the context, can be devastating. At the end of the day the only reason I’m mad is because they started something amazing, and the last thing I want to do is discourage people from writing more, negative comments have been holding me back on some of my fics (well one of them) so as frustrated as I am, I won’t put that on them, besides, it’s not just one author I’m annoyed at, so many people do this. Either finish it, or be honest.
in the year 3620 BC your ancestor set alight a field belonging to my ancestor, destroying near half an acre of good barley and causing much misery in our house. delete thy blog wretched saboteur
in the year 3620 BC your ancestor set alight a field belonging to my ancestor, destroying near half an acre of good barley and causing much misery in our house. delete thy blog wretched saboteur
Brenthia Moths: these moths can mimic the appearance and mannerisms of a jumping spider so convincingly that actual jumping spiders will sometimes attempt to court them
The markings, posture, and movements of a Brenthia moth (genus Brenthia, also known as a metalmark moth) all contribute to its disguise; the moths move around in short, jerky motions that mimic the movements of a jumping spider, and their hindwings are covered in black-and-white bands that strongly resemble the tucked-in legs of a salticiid spider, especially when the moth displays its unique wing position. The disguise serves as a defensive strategy, enabling the moth to avoid being preyed upon by actual jumping spiders.
In some cases, that disguise may work a little too well, as jumping spiders may actually mistake the moth for a potential mate and then attempt to engage it in a courtship/mating dance (which must be a pretty awkward and bizarre experiencefor the moth, tbh).
The resemblance between a Brenthia moth and a jumping spider may not seem terribly convincing to us, as human beings, but as this article explains:
When discussing animals mimicking their predator, it is important to remember that we humans are not the target audience. This means that the imitator may not look too convincing in its mimicry to us, but still manages to trigger a desired response from said predator.
Jumping spiders have also been known to respond to Brenthia moths by exhibiting a territorial display, which is yet another behavior that the spiders generally reserve for other spiders.
This study expands on the adaptive benefits of the moth’s disguise:
In controlled trials, Brenthia had higher survival rates than other similarly sized moths in the presence of jumping spiders and jumping spiders responded to Brenthia with territorial displays, indicating that Brenthia were sometimes mistaken for jumping spiders, and not recognized as prey.
The illustration below shows the basic/general resemblance between a Brenthia moth and a jumping spider:
the r/curatedtumblr -> tumblr migration is so funny to me. it’s like going to the zoo and enjoying it so much you climb into the enclosure to live with the monkeys
this reply evokes such an incredible image in the mind’s eye
Why did you blaze a post promoting the idea that food addiction is a thing. I’m coming to your house and killing you
I’m starting to think general people’s definition of “addiction” is largely vibes based and also largely based on the christian concept of sin, perhaps.
I cannot get over the assassination happening while I was trying to get coverage for my testosterone. Imagine going into the pharmacy all excited to get your first ever testosterone prescription but find out it costs 800$ out of pocket for a three month supply and UHC won’t cover it. So then you wait for your provider to get back to you about changing your prescription for an entire week and a half, and during that wait someone just. goes and fucking murders the CEO of your insurance company. Like they just kill him on the street. They had so much calculated hatred for this guy that they even engraved each bullet that hit him. Then, as if the heavens themselves opened up entirely to watch brian thompson descend into hell, your testosterone is ready two days later for pickup, and only costs 10 delicious dollars.
I cannot get over the assassination happening while I was trying to get coverage for my testosterone. Imagine going into the pharmacy all excited to get your first ever testosterone prescription but find out it costs 800$ out of pocket for a three month supply and UHC won’t cover it. So then you wait for your provider to get back to you about changing your prescription for an entire week and a half, and during that wait someone just. goes and fucking murders the CEO of your insurance company. Like they just kill him on the street. They had so much calculated hatred for this guy that they even engraved each bullet that hit him. Then, as if the heavens themselves opened up entirely to watch brian thompson descend into hell, your testosterone is ready two days later for pickup, and only costs 10 delicious dollars.
I bought a bunch of bananas and I’ve caught Cleo staring at them every day since
Update: I took the last one and now she wants to know where her bananas went
How do you know that she doesn’t just really love that bowl?
Because when we leave the bananas on the table without the bowl she stares at them with just as much love!!! She ONLY looks at the empty bowl right after we remove the last banana. Then she’s no longer interested
Good news! Noodle science has progressed far enough that I can finally introduce to you the Odile Critter, or Ophidile for short! (a contraction of ophidian and odile) though many other names seemed to work for her… I’ll put the alternative names under the cut!
She’s a little tiny eastern dragon, or perhaps a snake, or perhaps a ferret, or all three! What matters is that she’s wiggly and small and has so many modes of transport… slithering, hopping, flying?!
She stands as tall as Isabird, but she’s longer in the back so she ends up being technically the biggest critter of the main 5. She is good at collecting hoards of books inside of small spaces you don’t want them to be, like your vents.
Finally, you can add an Odile critter to your collection! Thank u for ur patience, this beastie went through so many ugly drafts before I found her.
I maintain that Hey There Delilah by Plain White Tees is a 450% better song if it’s about a guy who’s lost custody of his daughter
Literally every lyric has so much more Energies if it’s sung to a child I’m gonna die on this hill. “Hey there, Delilah /Don’t you worry about the distance /I’m right there if you get lonely /Give this song another listen” and “Hey there, Delilah/ I know times are gettin’ hard /But just believe me, girl / Someday I’ll pay the bills with this guitar / We’ll have it good /We’ll have the life we knew we would / My word is good” like? He’s trying to get his daughter back? Idk if she’s with the other parent or in foster care or what but it’s So Much I have a lot of feelings about this. The repeated promises, “I’d walk to you if I had no other way” and “I’m right there when you get lonely” when, like, obviously, he’s not, and he’s just sort of desperately hoping that she still understands that he loves her, and that she doesn’t feel abandoned. And then, “Delilah, I can promise you /That by the time that we get through / The world will never ever be the same /And you’re to blame” that’s so fucking sweet? That’s such a sweet thing to say to your daughter. Romance is over. Noncustodial parental love songs are where it’s at.
This is what “death of the author” means. We know that’s not what the song was written about, but what if it was? What if we explored the lyrics as though the speaker was a heartbroken father missing his daughter? It changes EVERYTHING. And it’s so good.
Anyway, OP you are wonderful and I love you.
Have always thought that “Hey there Delilah / you be good, and don’t you miss me” is a little creepy and infantilizing if sung to a romantic partner.
But if it’s a father, and he’s saying goodbye to the daughter he never gets to see, and he’s trying so hard to put on a brave face for her, then “You be good, and don’t you miss me” is shattering.
a really great organization that i don’t see any posts about here is HEAL palestine. it was founded by steve sosebee, who was a founding president of the PCRF before leaving in late 2023 to refocus his efforts on heal palestine to better meet the needs of palestinians impacted by the genocide. the organization provides palestinians in gaza with food, clean water, shelters, “makeshift classrooms,” and even medical evacuation for some children when it’s possible–their services are pretty wide.
you can donate here if you would like to send a tax-deductible donation to an organization. also, i don’t think any evacuations are possible right now, but if you’re in the united states and you’d like to welcome medically evacuated children in the future, i highly recommend signing up for their newsletter or following them on social media so you can stay updated in case any children evacuated by HEAL come to your area for treatment. welcoming these kids at the airport is a really moving way to provide them with moral support, entirely for free.
if it’s okay to add-
Rami Kashou, a Palestinian designer (originally made famous on Project Runway) has an ongoing deal on his website right now, where 100% of the proceeds on certain items will go to HEAL Palestine!
If you have the available funds to make a larger donation, then I think this could be a great option as you would also be supporting Palestinian artists
I think it’s important to remember, as a rule of thumb, if you take advantage of a social service, it actually makes it easier for other people who need that service to access it. Most of the time, when these services get cut, it’s because politicians will look at usage and say “see, no one is really using this thing, we can afford to trim the budget for food stamps by at least half”. Whereas if you decide to step up and use these programs, even if you feel like you “don’t really need it”, at bare minimum it’s another data point advocates can use to say “hey, look, people are using this thing, this is an important service we are providing, do not cut our funding”.
I work at a nonprofit, and it is absolutely wild explaining to folks that being part of a program that reduces their energy bill actually helps us get funding to help even more people get energy bill savings.
You aren’t taking resources from anyone by using programs you qualify for. You are making a case for those programs being important enough to continue to exist and (in many cases) grow.
We live in a world so controlled by the idea of resource scarcity that we reason “If I get help, that must be taking help away from someone else!”
